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RadioShack CEO James Gooch stepped down yesterday and as Laura Heller reported – this represents its biggest opportunity.

NOTE: A couple of great sites if you need to repair your cell phone right now are listed at the end of this article.

Here’s part of what I think presents an opportunity for RadioShack Chairman Daniel R. Feehan, as he starts his search for a new CEO. RadioShack should hire the best search engine optimization/search engine marketing guys on the planet (start with searching the SEOmoz community) and start creating content that solves their customer’s pain. It doesn’t take much to figure out what people are searching:

how to repair a [fill in the blank]

how to repair a cell phone

how to repair a broken [fill in the blank]

how to repair a tablet

how to fix a tablet

how to fix my notebook PC

The list goes on. There is no shortage of small electronic device repair and replacement opportunity. People rely on their devices. RadioShack could add repair services like Best Buy added the Geek Squad for higher-end computers. From there, RadioShack can heed Ms. Heller’s advice:

I believe now, as I did then, that RadioShack needs a real merchant not an MBA in the CEO role. There’s still opportunity for this retailer... There has to be a way for RadioShack to succeed in a market where small, mobile devices are rapidly becoming the most purchased and used consumer products in the world. --Laura Heller

I couldn’t agree more. They need a radical, a revolutionary, and someone who really gets the consumer. I’ve read lots of commentary that The Shack needs to go back to its core and sell electronics components (not Ms. Heller’s advice) – sell resistors, capacitors, parts of radios… I don’t believe they can win that space back. Amazon and a dozen others will make it incredibly difficult. Plus, they can probably save a bunch of money by not sponsoring various athletes and sports venues..

RadioShack could reclaim its title as a technology store. A place where people find answers to complicated questions about devices they don’t understand. Being America’s answer store, its neighborhood technology store, are tactics culled from RadioShack’s past. --Laura Heller

It is more logical for them to become a hub for people who need something fixed and then, while they are in-store, offer upgrades and other products. With all of their physical bricks and mortar storefronts, and their long heritage as a fixit shop for do-it-yourself types, they could attract a loyal following again. Plus, for the record, I believe they should partner with one of the prepaid cell phone companies to provide an on-the-spot loaner for someone who comes in with a broken screen or phone they dropped in the toilet. Maybe they should form a deal with the new mobile phone provider Ting that I wrote about earlier this week.

And, if you really do need to fix your cell phone, and can’t find a RadioShack to do it, here are two sites that offer loads of tips:

Repair4MobilePhone offers lots of user-generated videos and many manufacturer product manuals (or links to them) that can help you figure out the inner-workings of that tiny device you can’t do without.

eHow offers a great set of links and how-to advice. Ironically enough, the site is blanketed with ads from, you guessed it, RadioShack.